Ambient condition detectors have become wide-spread and are used in residences for sensing the presence of potentially dangerous ambient conditions such as gas or fire. Many known detectors provide a tonal or pulsed alarm output in the presence of a predefined, potentially dangerous, ambient condition. Some detectors provide additional information as to condition and location of the condition using synthesized speech. One such detector has been disclosed and claimed in Morris U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,310 entitled “Environmental Condition Detector With Audible Alarm and Voice Identifier”.
Gas detectors are known which include numeric displays for the purpose of providing visual information pertaining to gas concentration. For example, a level of gas, in parts per million and/or mode of operation of the detector can be visually presented using such displays.
One recognized deficiency of known detectors with visual displays arises from the location of the respective detector when in use. AC powered gas detectors are often plugged into AC receptacles, which are installed near the floor. On the other hand, smoke detectors are usually installed on a ceiling to take advantage of the propensity of airborne particulate matter such as smoke to rise. Neither of these locations is particularly conducive to directly viewing a detector mounted display.
Known alternates such as incorporating larger displays or backlighting the displays to make the alphanumerics being presented easier to read, apart from being just a partial solution to the problem, increase the price of the respective detector. They may also increase energy requirements which impose additional drains and shorten battery life in battery powered detectors.
There continues to be a need for ambient condition detectors which can in a user friendly way, provide additional information as to condition being sensed and detector status than has heretofore been possible. Preferably, such fuctionality would provide as much as or more information than known detectors having a visual display without exhibiting the drawbacks of a visual display given the typical locations where such detectors are usually installed. Preferably, additional parametric or status information would be provideable to a user without a commensurate increase in detector cost.